Commission faces criticism over eco-design standards

The European Commission is risking accusations of over- regulating industry with plans to extend a law on green design to all manufactured products.

According to a draft document seen by European Voice, the Commission will propose on 14 May that a 2005 law on eco-design, which currently covers electrical and electronic equipment, should be extended to cover all manufactured products, including clothing, cleaning products, furniture and building components. The directive would set minimum energy and environmental requirements for many products, using voluntary benchmarks to identify the best-performing products. Products that failed to meet minimum standards would be excluded from the EU market.

The Commission’s draft communication states that: “The challenge is to create a virtuous circle: improving the overall environmental performance of products throughout their life-cycle, promoting and stimulating the demand of better products and production technologies and helping consumers to make better choices.”

BusinessEurope, the employers’ lobby, is unhappy with the Commission’s approach. Franz Folker, an adviser with BusinessEurope, said: “Legislating for the eco-design of products should not be the priority route for enhancing the eco-design of products, as this should be left to industry and driven by market forces.”

Folker added that the proposal would cover sectors that are already “highly regulated”. He called on the Commission to remove chemicals from its action plan as this would be “a clear case of double legislation which should be definitely avoided”. The chemicals industry and retailers are subject to the REACH directive on the restriction, evaluation and authorisation of chemicals, which came into force in 2006.

Sonja Starnberger of Euro-chambres said it was also concerned about extending the eco-design directive, which she said seemed “a bit much to handle at once”. “In principle we think that if the eco-design directive is to be extended to other products it should be done very cautiously and be focused on products with energy-saving potential,” she said.

Germany has already warned the Commission not to present a proposal that is too prescriptive, or that dictates precisely how products are made.

An official at the Commission said: “We don’t see the problem as the key to the legislation is voluntary standards. It’s up to the companies to decide whether they go for the higher standards.”

The Commission will publish its proposal on 14 May as part of a package of laws on green design and labelling. There will also be a proposal to extend the EU’s eco-label directive and a communication on green public procurement that will call on EU public authorities to meet voluntary targets on buying green goods and services.

The “sustainable consumption and sustainable industry action plan” is a joint effort by three commissioners, Andris Piebalgs (energy), Günter Verheugen (enterprise) and Stavros Dimas (environment). In February, Verheugen said he was “the most reluctant member of the Commission when it comes to new regulation”.

European industry already faces a number of directives that touch on green standards, including a directive on the restriction of the use of hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (the RoHS directive) and a directive to reduce waste from electrical and electronic equipment (the WEEE directive). Transport is excluded from the eco-design proposal, as it is being dealt with by separate legislation.